Protein Kimchi Pancakes

... guaranteed to bewitch kimchi lovers & haters!

Okay crew, this month we’re all about badass-tasty budget meals. I’m still paying off my Christmas splurge, while simultaneously trying to book our summer holidays. Gah!

So …. I’m planning to halve my grocery spending in March and finally kick Christmas off my visa card.

This doesn’t mean less-tasty meals. Not in the slightest. It means more mindful planning, creative ignition, and a side serving of thriftiness.

Care to join me this month?

Let’s start today, with high-protein kimchi pancakes. I’ve recorded a kitchen demo for you (above) and created a printable PDF (below) for your kitchen files. Dead handy.

My household absolutely adores kimchijeon - a large, crispy, savory pancake humming with a tangy cabbage ferment. The Korean Kimchi Hophouse in Dublin specialises in serving kimchijeon (a.k.a. kimchi pancakes). They are, in fact, mad easy to make at home and can become a swift midweek vegetarian meal with a poached egg and slices of avocado.

What’s kimchi again?

Kimchi is a sour and fiery cabbage dish with an absurdly delicious tang. Those who made last week’s recipe will be all over this like a lost kitten at a stranger’s leg.

Kimchi will last for weeks and weeks in the fridge, making it rather nifty for busy readers. Think of it as a healthy, ready-made salad.

Yep. Make one jar of kimchi, and feed yourself many times (including this stellar pancake). It's what I call real fast food.

And if you’d rather buy your kimchi than make it, check out SuperValu's Food Academy. They have a variety of local Irish ferments on offer, which will work beautifully here. I got my mitts on super hot Jaru kimchi.

One kilo of home-made kimchi will set you back around €3. The store-bought equivalent of live kimchi can cost between 20-30€. Figure out which suits your wallet and your watch.

Why pancakes?

It’s the clever Koreans who discovered that shape-shifting kimchi into a frying pan with tofu and rice flour makes a damn tasty treat that will have everyone simmering for more. My son won’t touch fresh kimchi - but he can mainline a kimchi pancake at a speed normally reserved for a JD Sports sale. He’s happy, I’m happy (especially since kimchi holds a freight of cabbage, garlic, ginger, onion, carrot, radish).

The use of a naturally gluten-free flour, such as rice flour, helps to stop the pancake absorbing too much oil and becoming overly greasy. Clever Koreans. We add some kickass protein to this one, in the form of tempeh (fermented soya bean). Find packets of tempeh in Dunnes, SuperValu and Tesco.

Me, the kimchi apostle.

Want to learn more about fermentation? Here’s a live class from February where you can press play and “cookalong" (massage-along?) All you need is one cabbage, clean jars, and some fine sea salt. My recipe for fermented fennel happens to be The Easiest Ferment ever, if you’re looking for a starting point. And this beginner’s kimchi is like a bootcamp for your microbiome.

As always, these healthyassed recipes are the preserve of my paid community, whose subscriptions allow me to continue to write this newsletter, buy ingredients, test recipes, style as well as shoot these photos and kitchen demos. If you’ve been enjoying Taking the Hell out of Healthy in its free form, please consider upgrading to become a fancy full member, which will mean you get access to my entire recipe archive too (especially useful since I deleted my website).

I appreciate the love and support. I don’t take your attention for granted. I want to supercharge your battery with easy, nutritious recipes that will be your weaponry for your body’s armour.

Next week, an uplifting spring recipe to floss our winter bones and energise the air around us. It costs about 4€ to make and feeds four to six. Stay tuned!

Until then, I gift you pancakes.

Love, light and fiery goodness,

Susan Jane

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// Kimchi Pancakes//

Makes 2 large, or several smaller ones